Artículo

I was at rock bottom – Brook opens up on depression battle

19 febrero 2018 19:18

Kell Brook has opened up on the depression he suffered after losing his last two fights against Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr, saying the defeats left him at "rock bottom".

The Sheffield fighter put up a valiant effort after stepping up two classes to fight fearsome Kazakh Golovkin in September 2016 at middleweight, before Brook's corner pulled their man out when he sustained a broken eye socket.

Incredibly, Brook endured another broken eye socket when he lost his IBF world welterweight title to the classy Spence at Bramall Lane – the home of his beloved Sheffield United – on his last outing in May, forcing him to call the fight in the 11th round.

Brook was unbeaten before those bouts and the 31-year-old has spoken of how he turned to alcohol and struggled to get out of bed having been left deflated by claims he had quit.

"I was really that low. I didn't want to go on. People don't know that. I hit rock bottom around Christmas," Brook, who returns to the ring to face Sergey Rabchenko at light-middleweight next month, told The Guardian.

"I remember sitting on my own, thinking: 'No one loves me. What have I done to myself? What have I done to the people that do love me?' I was at home and my missus and kids were out. I thought, 'I've let people down who really love me.'

"It was very bad. I was thinking of retiring. Things weren't great at home. I was a lost soul – the lowest I've ever been.

"I was going out, drinking a lot. When I was drinking I was thinking I was having a good time. But it came back twice as bad, the depression. It was just a vicious circle – drinking, not caring about myself – and it gave me a bad low."